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by a_big_apple



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Brothers, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, Post-Promised Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-03
Updated: 2011-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-09 02:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For October 3rd.  Don't forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

It's been eight months since he last saw his brother; Alphonse steps off the train changed, but with the same ready smile in place. Ed takes in the scruffy jaw, the ponytail with messily hacked-off ends, the shift of adult muscle under tanned skin. He smiles back. He's just glad to have his brother here, bear-hugging him, today of all days.  
  
They phone Winry from the station, then stroll on to Roy's house.  Ed's house too, now, but he'll always think of it as Roy's first, tasteful furniture and liquor cabinets and parties with other generals and their wives. Al looks around as though he's never seen it before (though he has), as though Ed moving in there has changed it (and it has, he supposes--there are more books, and the subtle smell of motor oil that will always follow him). He nods, satisfied, and sets his bags in the guest bedroom.  
  
Ed sits on the bed, watching him unpack; Roy is still at work, so the house is quiet. Later there'll be friends, beer, a party for the prodigal Elric, but now it's just drawers opening and closing and the low whir of automail.  
  
"You look like Dad," Ed says when Al finally sits down beside him. "Don't they have razors out in the deserts of Xing?"  
  
"You're just jealous that I got the facial hair gene," Al replies, then yawns and drops his head onto Ed's shoulder.  
  
"I could grow a beard too, if I wanted to look like an old bastard."  
  
Al elbows him not-especially-lightly in the ribs. "Don't start."  
  
Ed scowls and rests his cheek against Al's bent head. "You want a nap before the party?"  
  
"Nah. That'll just make me groggy. Maybe some coffee, in a little while. It's all tea all the time over there."  
  
"I'll make a pot."   
  
They sit like that a while, Ed listening to his brother breathe. He's never quite gotten over the wonder of that, of a warm body where cold steel used to be.  
  
"Are you sure you're okay with not going home this year?" Al says.  
  
Ed thinks about the ruins of the house on the hill; Den's barking and Winry's apple pie; two graves side by side. He thinks about the big bed in the room down the hall, where Roy spoons up against his back and snores in his ear.  
  
"This is home," he says, and slings an arm around his brother's waist.  
  
Al just nods, as though he expected that answer all along.


End file.
